Microstructural studies of friction stir welds in 2024-T3 aluminum

Friction stir welds in 7 mm thick, 2024-T351 aluminum rolled sheet material have been completed. Metallurgical, hardness and quantitative energy dispersive X-ray measurements have been performed which demonstrate that a segregated, banded, microstructure consisting of alternating hard particle rich and hard particle poor regions is developed. Mixed-mode I/II monotonic fracture experiments confirm that the observed banded microstructure affects the macroscopic fracture process. Since the band spacing is directly correlated with the welding tool advance per revolution, our results indicated that the opportunity exists to manipulate the friction stir weld process parameters in order to modify the weld microstructure and improve a range of material properties, including fracture resistance.